[Relationship between the job characteristics of home-visiting nurses and their job-related burden and intention to continue working]

The purpose of this survey was to clarify the relationship between the job characteristics of visiting nurses, their workload and their intent to continue their work. The self-administered questionnaire survey targeted visiting nurses at a home-visit nursing care agency in Fukuoka prefecture. The results revealed the following points. Nurses who felt that there was "a discrepancy between what they thought their job description would be and the reality," that there was "a lot more work besides visiting homes," that there were "so many situations that require them to make a decision" or that there were "so many complex nursing skills" were more likely to find their workload burdensome. The more positive they felt about "the future prospects of the nursing agency," "the number of nurses at work" or "their wages," the more likely they were to have the intention of working continuously. The survey also suggested that a raised level of labor-management awareness for managers would help improve the incentive to work for visiting nurses, and the realization of systematic continuing education as a proactive measure to alleviate reactions to difficult realities would also help nurses maintain the desire to work continuously.